Social media is a bad feelings machine. Why can’t we just turn it off for good? | Sirin Kale

I owe my career to Twitter, but two years reporting on the pandemic has made me realise disinformation costs lives

I have a fantasy and it goes like this: a political party is formed, running on an anti-social-media platform. It campaigns on a pledge to ban social media. (“SWITCH IT OFF” is its straightforward, and elegant, slogan.)

The party wins a general election and at midnight, on what comes to be known as Social Media Freedom Day, the prime minister pushes a giant button that blocks all access to social media. Crowds cheer. On the anniversary of Social Media Freedom Day – which becomes a bank holiday, of course – children burn effigies of Mark Zuckerberg and dress up as the Twitter bird.

Sirin Kale is a Guardian journalist

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3Ev0UvQ